Together in Christ

Today we continue our sermon series called ‘Together.” We are having the book of Ephesians help us find ways that we are all united together as humans and as believers in Jesus as our Lord and Savior. This week we are looking at how we are “Together in Christ.”

Our scripture comes from Ephesians 2:11-22.

11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)—12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

Please pray with me…

I am going to try to do something out of season and see how it goes. He is risen.He is risen indeed. It is through this act of raising from the dead more than any other that should have led the Jewish people to believe that Jesus was and is the Christ, the anointed one, the Savior of the Jewish people.

The Jewish people were looking for someone to save them. They interpreted the scriptures as telling them that God would provide a Savior someone who would end their oppression and conquer their enemies.

The Jewish people had a number of people claim to be the Messiah in the past. Each time these were “false Messiahs” and were often crucified along with their followers. Therefore, the Pharisees, the most law-abiding religious sect of Judaism, was on the look out for those who would claim to be the Messiah.

This was why they struggled in accepting Jesus as the Christ. They were looking for what he was not instead of focusing on what he did. Jesus did not meet their expectations. They were looking for a warrior Messiah. Jesus seemed to be the opposite.

They expected the Messiah to have a focus on the Jewish law. Jesus would often critique the way that the Pharisees were following the law and would break the law by touching those considered unclean and allowing his disciples to do what the Pharisees considered work on the Sabbath. In their eyes Jesus could not be the Christ.

It is believed that Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament prophesies concerning the Messiah. The focus of the Pharisees seemed not to be that he had fulfilled these prophecies, their focus was the eye test, meaning he wasn’t what they expected the Messiah to be therefore Jesus can’t be the Messiah they were looking for.

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They were right in some aspects of their belief. Jesus was not only here to save the Jewish people and Jesus was not focusing on the law. Jesus was focusing on love and grace for all people. Jesus was offering to the Jewish people a different way of looking at the scriptures.

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The role Jesus played as the “Christ” changed the dynamics of the people groups in the world. Judaism believed that there were two groups of people, the Jewish people, and the Gentiles. The Jewish people considered the Gentiles to be unclean. They were not supposed to interact with them.

Our scripture makes this point when it says that there was a group of people who were “excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise.” Meaning they were people without hope. They were people without a true God.

Jesus changed this through his death on the cross. Jesus died not just for those that were Jewish but for all people. A sacrifice had to be made in order to allow “the world” to have “the chance” to be made “right” with God. Jesus was the Christ. Jesus was that sacrifice.

Our scripture makes this point through the understanding that through his death the Gentiles “have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” The world changed at that moment. It didn’t matter if you were Jew, or Gentile.

The Gentiles were made equal to the Jewish people in the eyes of God. Both groups had to be willing to accept as individuals that Jesus died for them in order to be a follower of God. The Jewish people had to believe that Jesus hadn’t been put on the earth to conquer the enemies of the Jewish people. He was there to conquer the enemy of all people, sin.

The Gentiles had to believe that it was possible for the Jewish Messiah to become their Savior. They had been told their whole lives that there was a separation between the Jewish people and their God and them.

Both groups had to forget about what they had spent their whole lives being told and choose to believe that Jesus died so that they could be saved from the power of sin. They had to forget about their preconceived notions and decide to become a follower of Jesus.

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Each of us who follow God through Jesus have also made a decision. Jesus is the Christ. We decided that the scriptures that have been passed down from generation to generation are true. That there is only one God, and that one God came down to earth and died for each one of us to be able to be saved.

Each person from the time Jesus died to today has to believe what are first reading tells us. God has prepared a place for us in Heaven and that Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life” We had to have faith in order to become a follower of the Christ.

Jesus was and is the way. It is through a belief in Jesus as our Lord and Savior that we are able to be saved from the power of sin. It is through this acceptance that we receive love, hope, joy, and peace.

Jesus is the way to everlasting love. We spoke of this love last week. We receive grace. Grace is the unearned and undeserved love from God. It is God first attempting to lead us into a relationship with him, then letting us be in a relationship with him, and also helping us become closer to him,

One of the ways we receive and understand that love is through the Holy Spirit. Jesus told his disciples that he was not leaving them alone. They would have a helper. A helper they received at Pentecost.

We have that same helper. God loves each one of us too much to leave us without some help. Without someone to offer us direction and to remind us of the love that God has for each one of us.

The loveof God is everlasting. His love for us never wavers as long as we want his love. He allows us to live our lives as we desire but because he loves us, he is constantly trying to keep us on the path that is best for us, for him, and for those around us.

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Jesus is the way to eternal hope. The Holy Spirit was not the only promise made by Jesus. He also promised hope now and forever. The hope we receive now is the ability to live without the power of sin overwhelming us.

The Jewish people lived with sin as a constant part of their lives. They attempted to find ways to move themselves away from sin but what they discovered is that sin is a part of our lives. God won’t stop us from sinning, but he will remove the power of sin.

Focusing on the sin not having power over us removes the guilt and shame associated with sin and to keep the commandments given to the Jewish people. Guilt and shame were a constant part of the life for the Jewish people.

Jesus gave hope because he removed sin. The removal of the power of sin should lead us to not have guilt and shame. We should live our lives with the understanding that our sins are turned over to God. Therefore, guilt and shame should not be a part of our lives.

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Jesus is the way for us to receive overwhelming joy. The weight of sin being removed should lead us to be joyful in what we do and what we say. We have been set free to be the people that God desires for us to be.

We should have the joy of God down in our heart. We should be grateful and thankful that we have God within us helping us live lives that are joyful and helpful to those around us. We are to live lives of joy and gratefulness.

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Jesus is the way to peace beyond all understanding. There was a war taking place within the Jewish people. A war between good and bad or could say a war between good and evil. They were without peace because they could never be good enough.

We are not good enough on our own. God makes us good enough. We should have peace within us because God allows us to be free from the power of sin. We should have a peace beyond understanding because we have been freed from the power of the evil sin put within us.

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Jesus is not only the way, but he is also the truth. It was brought up before we need to believe the truth about Jesus in order for us to become followers of Jesus. The next step can become the harder step. We need to also believe what Jesus said about the father and the Holy Spirit.

We are more likely going to be willing to follow the will of a God that we believe is all knowing and all powerful. It is believing in these two concepts that can allow us to be willing to step out and step up for God.

It takes faith in the truth to be willing to trust that God will be there for us when we are struggling. It takes faith to believe that God will never leave us as we are attempting to be the person that he desires for us to be.

This is not only true as individuals but also as the church. We need to be united together in Christ. There is no doubt in my mind that God has a plan for us. I believe it because I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t true.

Our God wants to use us individually and as a church to allow us to serve him and those around us. We may have to step out of our comfort zone in order for what God wants to see us do can be accomplished.

Part of this involves believing in the power of the Holy Spirit. We have to believe that it was true when Jesus promised us a helper. That helper is the Holy Spirit. Relying on the Holy Spirit, trusting the Holy Spirit will allow us individually and as a church to become who God desires for us to be.

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Jesus is the life. He states to us that no one gets into Heaven accept through me. It is through a belief in Jesus that we are able to have eternal life. Jesus is our way into Heaven. It is through Jesus that we become a part of the family of God.

Jesus also shows us how to live our lives. Jesus had enemies but he didn’t focus on his enemies. We are called to focus on the love that God has for all people. Jesus tells us that we are to love our enemies.

Scripture tells us that people are not enemies. The evil one is our enemy, but we have allowed embattling with each other and those that are not believers to be what Christians are known for. We are called to let people know us by the love we show to those around us.

It didn’t matter who they were Jesus desired to be with them and show love to them. He showed love to the outcasts of society. Jesus showed love to the disenfranchised of society. Jesus showed love to those people looked up to in society.

Jesus showed us that we are to live our lives as people of love. We are to be the people that serve those no one else wants to serve and to help those that no one else wants to help. We are called to the outcasts and the lowly while also helping and interacting with those that we might not agree with.

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We are to remember that “Jesus is our cornerstone.” The world lives the way the world desires to live. We are to live our lives the way God wants us to live. This means that we are to be people of love, hope, joy, and peace.

We are called to let those around us know that they can also have the love, hope, joy, and peace that we have but only through a relationship with Jesus. We have a message to share with those around us of the Christ. The one who came to earth to become an example for us on how to live and who died so that all of us could be saved from the power of sin.

We can together as a church spread this message and have God help us lead those around us to be a part of our church family and also become a part of the family of God.

Please pray with me…